After a week of acclimatization, I was ready to start ramping up training in my second week in Kenya. Approaching an altitude training camp is always tricky – on one hand, time is limited and you want to make the most of your stint. On the other, push too hard, too soon, and you could find yourself “in the hole” before long. Get in the hole (fatigue, depletion of iron, etc.), and it takes weeks for the body to bounce back. Meanwhile, hard workouts or competitions are out of the question. 

Every Tuesday in Kenya is Track Tuesday. Hundreds of athletes flock to the track from before 7am in the morning. Different groups file in like clockwork, and the track is only vacated by about 12 noon.

Every Thursday, athletes flock to an obscure location in the country roads to do a fartlek session. The session plan is laid out by a leader of the pack, usually an athlete of 2:06 marathon caliber or faster.

Day 1

AM: 12 miles easy

PM: 6 miles recovery

Day 2

AM: Fartlek – 2 miles warmup, 20 x (1min on, 1min off), 3 miles cooldown

PM: 6 miles recovery

Day 3

AM: 11 miles easy

PM: 6 miles recovery

Day 4

AM: 3 miles warmup, 40min tempo, 3 miles cooldown

PM: 6 miles recovery

Day 5

11 miles very easy run

Day 6

17.5 miles hilly long run (started easy, progressed towards the end – 2 hours total)

Day 7

REST

Week total: 100 miles

Week 2 was still spent acclimatizing to the altitude, terrain, and the rest of the new training environment. No intense track sessions yet, saving those for the weeks to come. With perfect weather, loads of training partners and hills all around, I look forward to getting fit over the next few weeks.

-Rui